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Why People Abandon Checkout

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedApr 20222 min read

Ecommerce provides a wealth of opportunities for retailers. It enables them to target and market to their niche online and provide a fully optimised online shopping experience. As an ecommerce merchant, you’ve invested heavily in not only providing amazing products, but creating a UX and UI that’s easy and intuitive for shoppers. You’re constantly reviewing your prices against your competitors and ensuring you’re delivering value for money.

And yet, despite all this, you’re still missing out on potential sales. Every time a customer builds and abandons a shopping cart, you’re losing potential revenue. Here, we’ll look at some of the reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts at the checkout and what you can do to reduce instances of checkout abandonment to boost your sales and grow your business.

Why checkout abandonment should be addressed now

It’s impossible to mitigate checkout abandonment entirely. After all, customers build and abandon online shopping carts for all kinds of reasons. And some of the people who do so were never seriously considering making a purchase. At least not in the near future.

But just because some cart abandonment is inevitable doesn’t mean that retailers are powerless to prevent it. In the fourth quarter of 2021, up to 80% of baskets created on UK ecommerce sites did not result in a sale. That’s a huge source of potential revenue that can be recovered. It’s merely a matter of identifying the reasons why shoppers abandon checkout and taking active steps to prevent it.

What causes checkout abandonment?

Not all of the reasons for checkout abandonment are because of your brand or website. Sometimes, consumers will simply be researching a purchase. However, there are some issues that may give consumers pause and result in checkout abandonment.

Some of the most common include:

unexpected additional costs (such as shipping fees)
needing to create an account to finish the purchase
complicated checkout process
hidden costs
lack of perceived trust in the website
crashes or website performance issues
not enough payment options

How to reduce checkout abandonment

Now that we know a little more about why customers abandon their shopping baskets at the checkout, let’s take a look at some of the ways in which ecommerce merchants can prevent them.

Simplify the checkout process

A complicated checkout process can make shoppers quit in frustration. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to make the checkout process easier. Keep the checkout simple, allow auto-filling of fields and social logins. And avoid redirecting to other websites.

Be transparent in your pricing

Shoppers hate unpleasant surprises. So make sure that the prices advertised are accurate. Any hidden extras or high shipping fees will have customers closing their browser windows.

Display trust signals

Customers need to know that their payment information will be handled securely. Make sure that they have the reassurances that they need within your checkout page.

Allow users to checkout as guests

Even with trust signals, customers may not want to take the time or share the data necessary to create an account. A guest checkout option makes the shopping process quicker and easier, with less commitment from the customer.

Provide a suitable payment method that makes it easy to pay

Complications at the point of payment can make customers quickly change their minds about a purchase. GoCardless provides users with high-converting payment pages during the checkout experience. These are available in a variety of formats to fit your payment flow including hosted pages, drop-in modules, and a range of custom options.

Set up an abandoned cart email template

Customers abandon carts for a number of reasons. Sometimes, they just forget to checkout, so sending an abandoned checkout email can remind them. It can also lead to a higher proportion of successful checkouts. Here are some of the best abandoned checkout email templates.

We can help

If you’re interested in finding out more about checkout abandonment and how to avoid it, then get in touch with our financial experts. Discover how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.